Dear Editor,
We’re being hustled by giant corporations.
The Uplands Wind East project is one of a flurry of solar, wind, and natural gas proposals being made to the Public Service Commission (PSC) for generating more electricity. Why? Data centers designed to train and run Artificial Intelligence models (AI) are being rushed into service here in Wisconsin by Big Tech companies.
According to the PSC, Wisconsin’s utility companies are projecting a huge increase in peak demand, largely because the three biggest data centers underway near Port Washington (OpenAI and Oracle), Racine County (Microsoft), and Beaver Dam (Meta/Facebook) are on track to consume much more electricity than all of Wisconsin’s residential housing units combined!
How much new capacity will Wisconsin utilities require to meet this AI demand? Uplands Wind East’s proposed 51 wind turbines would produce less than 10% of the electricity needed. So utility providers will be lobbying for more big renewable energy projects, as well as new natural gas plants. Meanwhile, planned decommissioning of dirty and expensive coal-fired plants is being postponed.
As with many states, data centers have been enticed to locate in Wisconsin by $billions in tax incentives provided through bipartisan agreement between our Republican legislature and Democratic governor in 2023. This encouragement was presumably designed to increase tax base and create jobs.
The good news is that people and politicians are starting to recognize the full impacts of this policy, and are talking about pausing new data center construction.
We need to demand that our politicians ditch the political theater over who is to blame for this unwanted mess, and quickly fashion new bipartisan policies that keep our electricity costs down, our air and water clean, and help manage the overall impact that these huge data centers will have on the Wisconsin countryside.
Doug Hansmann
Rural Ridgeway, WI